Hot, damn hot
Our take off from Paris was delayed about 40 minutes and then our landing was delayed another 1/2 hour or so due to congestion. Fortunately for us this wasn't an issue as we still arrived at our hotel around 8:30am and the room wasn't ready - as expected. Back to the flight though and with the late take off, dinner wasn't served until around midnight, so by the time we tried to sleep, the flight only had about three hours left. We each managed to sleep only an hour or two, not really what we were hoping for.
Tired or not we had a new city to see, so we went straight to the nearby Mall of the Emirates for breakfast, then wandered the shops for a while. The Mall of the Emirates is really big and includes 'Ski Dubai', an indoor ski slope and snow playground. We didn't want to spend anytime in there, though it did look fun. We decided to venture outside but couldn't do our usual walking around. This was for two reasons, firstly Dubai is very spread out and secondly the temperature was low 40's and the wind was really hot as well. We caught a taxi near to the Burj Al Arab, our taxi driver taking us to a free beach where we could get good views.
We walked to the front entrance, but weren't able to get very close. Another taxi took us out to the Atlantis hotel on Palm Island then back to our hotel.
We had a Desert Tour booked for 4:00pm, so checked in, showered and got ready. The tour was really good, we headed out of Dubai into the desert - through a heavy rain and sand storm during which the temperature dropped from 38 to 23 and visibility fell to just a few metres. We drove for about 40 minutes across the sand dunes, going pretty fast up and down the dunes, sliding sideways and crashing over bumps. Eventually we stopped at an 'oasis' area for a camel ride, entertainment, sunset and dinner. I also paid extra to do a bit of quad biking which was fun. The entertainment was reduced because of Ramadan starting, so there was no belly dancing but we did have a 'Whirling Dervish' dancer. He was pretty amazing spinning around and holding up to six circular objects in his hands and mouth. He then turned some lights on his costume and while still spinning made different patterns appear. Hard to explain but brilliant to watch. Dinner was a buffet of salads and meats. By now the temperature had climbed into the high 30's again so we were glad to get back in the car. On the way home it kept climbing and by around 10:00pm was up to 41!
Though really tired, we went back to Mall of the Emirates to do a quick food shop. At the entrance there were a whole lot of cars double parked. There was a Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley and new Corvette with lots of people taking photos. Apparently the owners stay near by and enjoy watching people admiring their cars.
We both slept about 11 hours and woke at 10:00am Saturday. After breakfast we caught the train to the Mall of Dubai, another huge shopping centre. This one has an Ice Skating Rink and an Aquarium with the biggest viewing window in the World - and about 1200 shops. It is also next to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 850 metres, and the Dubai Fountains, designed by the same guy who did the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas. We spent around 6 hours here before catching the train to the Gold Souk that is a street full of gold merchants, but unfortunately Trace couldn't find the charm she was looking for. On the way home we went back to Dubai Mall to watch the fountain show, which was good but very short, only about 5 minutes long. Didn't get to bed until 1.30am and were exhausted after 2 long days.
For the last day of our 8 week holiday we planned to go to Ferrari World theme park in Abu Dhabi. This was proving a bit difficult as a cab was going to cost around $170 or if we also wanted to look at a huge mosque, around $270. We emailed a bus company for prices but they never got back to us. In the Dubai Mall we found a Thrifty car hire company and ended up renting a car for the day, for around $100 including petrol. Collecting the car after we watched the fountains meant we could get away a bit earlier.
We drove first to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque where Trace needed to put on an 'abaya' dress to cover her shoulders, knees and hair. She looked like Obi Wan Kenobi! I was fine in my long pants and T shirt. The mosque can hold 40,000 worshippers and has three huge chandeliers inside, the biggest weighs 12 tonnes. A lot of the interior design was beautifully crafted, but ugly.
We arrived at Ferrari World a little after 1:00pm and it was really quiet. Due to Ramadan, hardly anybody was there and it suited us fine, with basically no queue at any of the attractions. There were simulator rides, cinema shows, static displays of cars and of course roller coasters. One was the Fiorana GT Challenge, where two coasters 'race' each other running side by side and looping over and under the other. I went on this three times, twice with Trace and surprisingly it was a dead heat each time!!. I couldn't get Trace on Formula Rossa, mainly because it goes from 0 - 240 km/h in less than five seconds- the fastest coaster in the world. I went on it twice and it was a blast, you got quite a buffeting from the wind and had to wear goggles so the desert sand didn't get in your eyes. Other than the roller coasters Ferrari World is completely indoors, so it was far more pleasant than the 43 degrees outside.
We left Abu Dhabi around 6:30 and returned the car to the Mall of the Emirates, bought some dinner, then walked back to our hotel to pack our cases for the last time.
Tired or not we had a new city to see, so we went straight to the nearby Mall of the Emirates for breakfast, then wandered the shops for a while. The Mall of the Emirates is really big and includes 'Ski Dubai', an indoor ski slope and snow playground. We didn't want to spend anytime in there, though it did look fun. We decided to venture outside but couldn't do our usual walking around. This was for two reasons, firstly Dubai is very spread out and secondly the temperature was low 40's and the wind was really hot as well. We caught a taxi near to the Burj Al Arab, our taxi driver taking us to a free beach where we could get good views.
We walked to the front entrance, but weren't able to get very close. Another taxi took us out to the Atlantis hotel on Palm Island then back to our hotel.
Though really tired, we went back to Mall of the Emirates to do a quick food shop. At the entrance there were a whole lot of cars double parked. There was a Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley and new Corvette with lots of people taking photos. Apparently the owners stay near by and enjoy watching people admiring their cars.
We both slept about 11 hours and woke at 10:00am Saturday. After breakfast we caught the train to the Mall of Dubai, another huge shopping centre. This one has an Ice Skating Rink and an Aquarium with the biggest viewing window in the World - and about 1200 shops. It is also next to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at 850 metres, and the Dubai Fountains, designed by the same guy who did the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas. We spent around 6 hours here before catching the train to the Gold Souk that is a street full of gold merchants, but unfortunately Trace couldn't find the charm she was looking for. On the way home we went back to Dubai Mall to watch the fountain show, which was good but very short, only about 5 minutes long. Didn't get to bed until 1.30am and were exhausted after 2 long days.
For the last day of our 8 week holiday we planned to go to Ferrari World theme park in Abu Dhabi. This was proving a bit difficult as a cab was going to cost around $170 or if we also wanted to look at a huge mosque, around $270. We emailed a bus company for prices but they never got back to us. In the Dubai Mall we found a Thrifty car hire company and ended up renting a car for the day, for around $100 including petrol. Collecting the car after we watched the fountains meant we could get away a bit earlier.
We drove first to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque where Trace needed to put on an 'abaya' dress to cover her shoulders, knees and hair. She looked like Obi Wan Kenobi! I was fine in my long pants and T shirt. The mosque can hold 40,000 worshippers and has three huge chandeliers inside, the biggest weighs 12 tonnes. A lot of the interior design was beautifully crafted, but ugly.
We arrived at Ferrari World a little after 1:00pm and it was really quiet. Due to Ramadan, hardly anybody was there and it suited us fine, with basically no queue at any of the attractions. There were simulator rides, cinema shows, static displays of cars and of course roller coasters. One was the Fiorana GT Challenge, where two coasters 'race' each other running side by side and looping over and under the other. I went on this three times, twice with Trace and surprisingly it was a dead heat each time!!. I couldn't get Trace on Formula Rossa, mainly because it goes from 0 - 240 km/h in less than five seconds- the fastest coaster in the world. I went on it twice and it was a blast, you got quite a buffeting from the wind and had to wear goggles so the desert sand didn't get in your eyes. Other than the roller coasters Ferrari World is completely indoors, so it was far more pleasant than the 43 degrees outside.
We left Abu Dhabi around 6:30 and returned the car to the Mall of the Emirates, bought some dinner, then walked back to our hotel to pack our cases for the last time.
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